Andy Warhol is a character most of us know everything and nothing about. We know of his soup cans and success. We know he is quoted as saying “in the future, everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes”. We know that, in many ways, this is true. What the Warhol diaries does is peek behind the curtain and tell us not only about the man behind the silver wigs, but the reach he has had in creating every aspect of modern culture.
The Netflix docuseries, written and directed by Andrew Rossi, follows Warhol from 1976 to his death in 1987, as documented in his posthumously published diary of the same name. The diary itself was a written daily and then passed on to his friend and editor Pat Hackett, who is just one of the many interviewees who help to tell this story. She is joined by the likes of John Waters, Debbie Harry and Rob Lowe, as well as the few of Andy’s nearest and dearest who survived the New York art scene to tell the tale.
A combination of excerpts from the diary and a variety of interviews take us through the highs and lows of Andy’s personal life. The first episode makes a mission statement akin to that of writer Fran Lebowitz, who worked alongside Warhol at Interview Magazine - “Everything bad in the Culture is Andy’s Fault”. He was an early pioneer in modern culture’s most hated and beloved elements, from reality TV to NFTs, Warhol was there first.
This documentary itself fulfils another of Warhol’s infinitely quotable phrases “Machines have less problems. I'd like to be a machine.” Through the magic of AI technology, a digital reconstruction of his voice is used to read passages from the diary. To begin with, it is jarring to hear a robot with a Pittsburgh accent recount heartfelt tales of lost love and loneliness. The voice is that of Actor Bill Irwin with Warhol’s tone, accent and inflection digitally merged over the top. Luckily for Resemble AI, the Toronto base company behind the voice, Warhol’s flat voice soon merges with the AI and by episode two you wouldn’t know otherwise.
Throughout the series, Rossi consistently shows us how Warhol has a tight grasp of the images that surrounded him, in both his work and his life. But here, in this series, we see Warhol let loose and allow himself to love.
Ultimately, this series gives Warhol, however robotic, a chance at being human. Due to questions very publically surrounding his sexuality, until recently the world never knew Warhol as a lover. Although today this may seem trivial, it is important to consider the impact this had during the HIV/AIDS crisis, from which one of Warhol’s partners died. He has been criticised for not speaking up about the illness at a time when censorship was so rife. Rossi, alongside museum curator Jessica Beck, gives insight into not only his personal life but his “The last supper” series, his final works. Throughout are many themes prevalent throughout the aids crisis, such as religion and censorship. The series is a refreshing injection of culture for those who are craving a shot of culture without the snobbery and is available to watch on Netflix from the 9th March.
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